The Moore You Know September 15th - September 29th, 2023

The power of the purse

If you have a working cellphone or a television, you likely already know that the government is set to shut down on Sunday. What you may not know, thanks to the work of our biased national media, is why. And the answer is far more sobering than the shutdown itself.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that at our current rate of spending, our $33 trillion national debt will reach $144 trillion in just 30 years. This adds up to $1 million in debt per American household which will be saddled to you, your children, and your grandchildren. Americans are already paying a 17 percent inflation tax due to out-of-control spending.

So, why are we facing a shutdown? Our government reached this point because Congress has failed to appropriate funds the way our founders intended.

Instead of debating and giving every member a voice, the new status quo for funding the government is to pass short-term continuing resolutions, or CRs, which do not address our spending and policy issues. The other option is to pass last-minute “omnibus” bills that are thousands of pages long, and also rarely do anything to curb spending.

For instance, the last omnibus bill passed in December 2022 under Pelosi’s leadership was 4,155 pages long, cost $1.7 trillion, and included things like $410 million for the border security of Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Oman, ignoring the need to secure the border of our own country.

House conservatives refuse to spend Americans off a cliff, which is why we have been voting until the early hours of the morning this week. The founders gave us the power of the purse, and House conservatives are using it to change the status quo.

There are meant to be 12 separate appropriations bills that fund the government: agriculture, commerce and science, defense, energy and water, financial services, homeland security, interior and environment, labor and health, legislative, military construction and veterans affairs, state and foreign operations, and transportation and housing. We are working against the clock to negotiate and pass them all separately, and they all make significant spending cuts. 

If American families have to make adjustments due to the out-of-control Democrat spending that has fueled inflation, the government should too. The legislative process is not easy, but House Republicans will be here working as long as it takes to cut a deal that helps families keep more money in their wallets. Forcing change on Washington’s dysfunctional bureaucracy is the only way to stop the status quo of runaway deficits and prevent future generations from paying the price of more crippling debt.

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If you need help from my office with the VA, IRS, or another federal agency, or if we can help you with a government service like processing a passport request, I hope you will reach out to us. We’ve resolved over 3,600 cases since I took office in 2021. Visit one of my offices in Wetumpka, Dothan, Andalusia, Troy, or Washington, call us at 334-478- 6330, or visit barrymoore.house.gov to learn how we can help.

To view the column in PDF format, please click here.